Article of furniture



July 17, 1962 E. F. HAMILTON 3,044,840

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United States Patent Ofiice I 3,044,840 Patented July 17, 1962 3,044,840 ARTICLE OF FURNITURE Earl F. Hamilton, Columbus, Ind., assignor to Hamilton Cosco, Inc., Columbus, Ind., a corporation of Indiana Filed Aug. 8, 1960, Ser. No. 48,105 6 Claims. (Cl. 311108) This invention relates to panel-like furniture components such as table tops, chair seats, or the like, and particularly to such panel-like components which require peripheral reinforcement.

It is an object of my invention to provide for such a panel-like component an improved form of peripheral reinforcement of attractive appearance which will strengthen such component, and which can be easily and quickly secured thereto.

In carrying out my invention in its preferred form, I provide a panel of the desired shape and material, and having a plurality of metal clips rigidly mounted on one of its faces adjacent the peripheral edges thereof. Each of said clips has an angulated configuration and is received in an opening formed in a rigid peripheral frame conveniently formed from a length of metal tubing. The frame has a size such that it must be spring-stressed into a posit-ion for the reception of said clips in its openings for mounting it on the panel in abutting position against said one panel face between the panel edges and said plurality of clips.

Conveniently, the opposite face of the panel is covered with a flexible material such as a fabric or sheet plastic, with the edges of said covering extending around the edges of the panel and bindingly retained between the panel and the abutting peripheral frame.

Other objects and features of my invention will become apparent from the more detailed description which follows and from the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a bottom plan of a collapsible card table embodying my invention, the legs being shown in collapsed position;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation of the table shown in FIG. 1 with the legs thereof in extended operative position;

FIG. 3 is an isometric view of the peripheral reinforcing frames, and showing one of the clips of FIG.

mounted therein;

FIG. 4 is a vertical section taken on the line i -4 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an isometric view of one of the frame-mounting clips;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary bottom plan of one of the corners of the tables shown in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 7 is a vertical section taken on the line 7-7 of FIG. 6.

My invention is shown in the accompanying drawing as embodied in a collapsible card table provided with a top 10 supported at each of its corners by a leg 12 engageahle with the floor or other supporting surface. Each of the legs 12 is pivotally interconnected to the top 10 for movement between a retracted posit-ion parallel with said top and an extended operative position generally normal to the plane of said top.

In accordance with my invention, the table top 10 comprises a main structural panel 16 formed of plywood, hard board, or other appropriate material, and desirably having rounded edges, as at 18. As best shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of longitudinally spaced metal clips 20 are mounted on the lower face of the panel 16 slightly inwardly from its peripheral edges. Each of the clips 20 comprises a first stretch 22 rigidly fastened to the lower face of the panel 16, as by a rivet 24, and a second stretch 26 angling downwardly and inwardly from the outwardly disposed edge of the first clip stretch 22.

The reinforcement for the panel 16 is provided by a peripheral frame 30 formed from a length of metal tub- 7 ing having a circular cross-section and bent into a rectangular configuration generally corresponding to the size and shape of the panel 16. The abutting ends of said tubing are rigidly interconnected, such as by welding, and the interconnection between such ends is further strengthened by a sleeve 32 disposed within the metal tubing To mount the frame on the panel 16, a plurality of longitudinal extending openings 36 are formed in the frame tubing for the reception of the clip stretches 26, the tubing forming the longitudinal edges of the openings being struck inwardly, as at 37. 7

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the frame openings 36 are out of the plane of the vertical axis of said frame, and the distance between the openings 36 along the opposed sides of said frame is greater than the distance between the inner edges of the clip stretches 26 mounted along the opposed edges of the panel 16. Thus, to mount the frame 30 on the clips 20, said frame is springstressed outwardly to permit the clip stretches 26 to be received in the frame openings 36. With the clip stretches 26 received in said openings, the stress is released from the frame and the inherent resiliency of the frame tubing returns said frame to its prestressed size with the edges 37 of the frame openings abutting the opposed faces of the clip stretches 26 adjacent their juncture with the stretches 22. The frame is thus rigidly-held on the panel 16 in a position to abut the lower panel face between the edges thereof and the clips 20.

To mount the legs 12 on the top 10, each of said legs is pivotally connected to a bracket having upper and lower parallel flanges 40 and 42 rigidly connected to the frame 30 adjacent one of its corners, as by rivets 44. Each of the flanges 40 abuts the lower panel face and is secured to said panel by a clip 46 having one of its ends mounted on the panel 16, as by a rivet 48, and its ner, the edges of said coveringextending around the panel 16 are fastened in place by the tubing 30 bindingly retaining the edges of said covering against the lower face of the panel 16. Further, as shown in FIG. 4, the rivets 24 for the clips 20 extend through the margins of the covering 50 extending along the lower face of the panel 16 to further secure said covering thereon.

Although I have described my invention as embodied in a card table top, it is to be understood that other modifications and embodiments may be employed which are within the spirit and scope of the invention described in the claims which follow.

I claim as my invention:

1. In an article of furniture, a panel, a plurality of metal clips mounted in spaced relation to each other adjacent the marginal edges of the lower panel face, each of said clips having a pair of angulated stretches, one of the stretches in each pair of stretches being abut-ting in the lower face of the panel and the other of said pair of stretches angling obliquely downwardly and inwardly, means fixedly mounting said one of said'stretches on said panel, and a tubular metal frame abutting said lower panel face and having a plurality of openings formed therein for the reception of said other of said pair of clip stretches, the lateral extent of a geometric contour formed by a line joining the inwardly presented ends of said other of said clip stretches being less than the lateral extent of a geometric contour formed by a line joining said frame openings whereby said frame is spring-stressed to dispose said other of said clip stretches in the frame openings in a locked position for mounting the frame on the panel.

2. The invention as set forth in claim 1 in which said frame comprises a length of metal-tubing having a circular cross-section and abutting the lower face of said panel along lines lying between the marginal edges of said panel and the vertical longitudinal planes of the outwardly-most disposed portions of said plurality of clips, and said frame openings are disposed laterally inwardly from the portions of the frame abutting the panel.

3. The invention as set forth in claim '1 in which the tubing defining the longitudinal edges of each of said frame openings is angled inwardly toward the axis of said tubing to abut the opposed faces of the clip stretches received in said openings.

4. The invention as set forth in claim 1 with the addition that a covering of flexible sheet material is disposed over the upper face of the panel and extends around the edges thereof to underlie the lower panel face, said covering being retained on said panel by said means extend ing through said covering and by the margins of said covering being bindingly retained between the panel and frame.

5. In a table construction, a reotangularly shaped panel, a first set of angulated metal clips mounted in spaced relation to each other along the marginal edges or" the lower panel face, each of said clips having a pair of angulated stretches with one of the stretches in each pair of stretches abutting the lower panel face and the other of said pair of stretches angling downwardly and inwardly, means fixedly mounting said one of said stretches on said panel, a rectangularly shaped frame of metal tubing abutting the lower panel face and having a plurality of openings formed therein for the reception of said other of said clip stretches, the distance between the inner ends of said other clip stretches along the opposed edges of the panel being less than the spacing between the openings along the opposed sides of the frame whereby said frame is spring-stressed to dispose said other of said pair of clip stretches in the frame openings for mounting the frame on the panel, and a leg-mounting bracket adjacent each corner of the table and having a pair of flanges parallel to said panel and rigidly secured to said frame, one of said pair of flanges on each bracket abutting the lower panel face and connected thereto by a second set of clips mounted on the lower panel face and locked in openings formed in said one of said pair of flanges.

6. The invention as set forth in claim 5 with the addition that a covering of flexible sheet material is disposed over the upper face of the panel and extends around the edges thereof to underlie the lower panel face, said covering being retained on said panel by said means extending through said covering and by the margins of said covering being bindingly retained between the panel and frame.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 894,020 Lev-ick July 21, 1908 2,703,604 Becker Mar. 8, 1955 2,729,279 Axtell et a1 Ian. 3, 1956 2,729,280 Adler Jan. 3, 1956 2,772,936 Bargen Dec. 4, 1956 2,868,601 Hamilton Ian. 13, 1959 2,879,570 Becker Mar. 31, 1959 

